Barbara Richardson, chief of external relations for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) has been elected chair of the board of directors of Brand USA. The action took place at the board’s recent meeting in Washington, D.C. She succeeds Tom Klein, former president and CEO of the Sabre Corporation. Prior to joining Metro, Richardson had her own consulting firm and also served for 12 years at Amtrak, lastly as vice president of marketing and communications. She was appointed to the Brand USA board of directors in 2014.
The San Francisco Travel Association has announced the addition of Tom David as executive vice president/chief sales officer, effective Oct. 16. The post was previously held by John Reyes, who has become COO of Visit Sacramento. David has worked with the Marriott organization since 1988, most recently as vice president of sales, Marriott Western Mountain Pacific Region, where he served as the business leader for the Area Sales (proactive), Group Sales (reactive) and property based teams including more than 300 sales professionals with responsibility for booking business into 70 Marriott and Starwood hotels across five states.
Hubert Kluske will become chief commercial officer at TUI Germany next February. Kluske, who is currently managing director Mobilcom-Debitel Shop GmbH, will be responsible for sales and marketing.
Marek Andryszak currently holds this position in addition to his role as CEO of TUI Deutschland.
As the head of Mobilcom-Debitel Shop GmbH, Kluske has been responsible for several years for the entire area sales with its own shops, franchise partners and hundreds of sales partners from the retail trade.
Delta Air Lines has appointed Shane Spyak as its new staff vice president of sales for Europe, Middle East, Africa and India (EMEAI). He will be working alongside Delta’s European joint venture partners Air France, KLM, Alitalia, and as well as Virgin Atlantic, he will be based at the Air France headquarters in Paris. Spyak joined Delta in 2006, and has held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility across the Global Sales and International organizations. Prior to his promotion to staff vice president, he served as managing director–Latin America & Caribbean.
Sean Keliiholokai has joined Visit West Hollywood as vice president of business development for the organization. Keliiholokai will be charged with growing the local tourism industry through hotel and lodging occupancy, focusing on the city’s top international visitor markets. Keliiholokai was previously the executive director for Visit Dana Point, a destination marketing organization servicing South Orange County.
Philippa Baines has joined Intrepid as its new business development manager for the UK Midlands. She joins the company from Wendy Wu Tours, where she had the same title. Baines also held the same title with The Global Travel Group and Explore Worldwide.
Richard Humphrey, CEO/CCO of The Ride, LLC., has announced a management buyout of New York City sightseeing company that currently includes THE RIDE, THE TOUR and the recently launched THE DOWNTOWN EXPERIENCE with Virtual Reality. Partners joining with Humphrey in the buyout include Jeffrey McCormick, managing partner at Saturn Partners, a growth stage investment firm; former board member Alan McKeon, CEO of Alexander Babbage, a strategy and analytics firm for destinations; and Dan Rogoski, currently the President/CRO of Experience the Ride.As part of the transaction, Alan McKeon has joined the company as its COO.
